News feminist philosophers can use

Day: September 23, 2011

I close comments on this post so that those interested in supplying answers to the following do so on NewAPPS:

I have a friend who is a PhD student in Philosophy at a fairly known but not élite, large American university. She has been experiencing any number of forms of harassment, either from senior male professors more or less coming onto her, or fellow graduate students of a more ‘fundamentalist’ persuasion (yes, in the most common understanding of that term) being aggressive, at times borderline physically aggressive, or other faculty making jokes relating to her appearance.

The question is, where should she go for help (or less dramatically, ‘support’, ‘advice’, ‘discussion’)? I have stopped reading Leiter’s blog a while ago and never was a frequent visitor to it (but I must say it is there I learned, sometime last year, of the astounding and shocking ‘What is it like to be a woman in philosophy?’ blog and its collection of tales, which has since been discussed here too). So, there is that blog, there is our own. Any other suggestions?

(I had asked, of course, if there were supportive female or male faculty members she could talk to, or graduate students with comparable experiences who might have developed ‘survival strategies’; it’s not clear if that is the case. I had also suggested she tell her story anonymously here or elsewhere, to shame the relevant parties – here the senior staff is probably more the issue – but she pointed out that they most likely are unaware of these blogs.) Thanks for your 2 cents.